


Three's the Charm

by Sylvyre



Series: Of the many changes [2]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Drinking to Cope, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Original Character(s), Tarsus IV, Thomas Leighton (mentioned) - Freeform, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:48:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23903383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sylvyre/pseuds/Sylvyre
Summary: Going to bars was Jim’s favorite pastime. Or diversion. Or addiction. Choose the label, he didn’t care. It was simply where he’d go to spend what time he wasn’t working at the mechanic’s. Bars held the allure of numbness from blessed alcohol and the occasional woman looking for the same shallow physical connection he needed to feel alive.But there were three fights that stood out amongst all the alcohol-blurred memories.
Series: Of the many changes [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1723075
Kudos: 17





	Three's the Charm

**Author's Note:**

> Probably slightly different in style from the first story and it's shorter than I'd like but hopefully not too bad (the next story should be longer...I hope)  
> As for plot, it does connect (eventually when I get around writing more than snippets of the timeline I have in mind)  
> If you like the whole crew to be in the story, I'm going to have to apologize in advanced-most of my notes are set before the 2009 movie (though I do have some rough ideas of the next few movies)
> 
> FYI, please don't feel like I believe everything I write in narration (ie there are much better and healthier ways of coping besides alcohol, fighting and sex)- stories are best when they're not interrupted by author preferences (ie I really don't enjoy anything remotely like cussing but...some characters sound wrong if they don't cuss though I do try to keep it at a minimum). That also means not every narrator will be reliable, not every character's actions will be right but I'm trying to make them that way.

Going to bars was Jim’s favorite pastime. Or diversion. Or addiction. Choose the label, he didn’t care. It was simply where he’d go to spend what time he wasn’t working at the mechanic’s. Bars held the allure of numbness from blessed alcohol and the occasional woman looking for the same shallow physical connection he needed to feel alive. 

Occasionally, though, they held the added appeal of a good fight. Sometimes, it was with locals that definitely had some sort of superhuman strength - because he never lost a fair fight, _thank you very much_ . Other times, it was with goody-two-shoes who thought he should stop hitting on the fairer sex who “clearly” weren’t interested - _please,_ he was easier on the eyes than any other idiot at the bar. 

But there were three fights that stood out amongst all the alcohol-blurred memories - memories which also informed his assistant teaching in hand-to-hand combat during the academy.

**The first time, it was an accident.**

“Please, that's a joke. The ship was destined to fail. No way to save it.” 

Jim frowned as he overheard a pair of red clad men in the corner. Of course, men was a relative term. They were Starfleet cadets, probably still wet behind the ears and hadn't even been on a ship yet. 

“Yeah, he wasted his time trying to save the crew.” The other replied, snickering. “It was stupid, he didn’t even _try_ to save the ship.”

Jim hated ( _admired_ ) his father for abandoning his family but no one was allowed to talk about him like what he did was nothing! 

Jim saw red and was running straight towards the cadets, fists raised, before he even knew what he was doing. The fight was a bloody mess on both sides. Needless to say, Jim never went back to a bar in San Francisco that close to Starfleet. 

The good part? He was quick to realize what the cadets had been talking about after his first failed test.

The best part? He beat it after the third time. _Take that._

**The second time, it was a coincidence.**

Jim sighed as he sat nursing his drink. He was on some backwater planet trying to forget the fact that he was just a short flight away from Ananta, his almost-cousin, but was met with a closed door. He briefly considered dropping his crusade but found he couldn’t keep going without at least _knowing_ the fate of those he had tried to save. So he went down the list of names. 

A few hacks later, he discovered he would never be able to see Aminah’s small but warm smiles ever again. She had committed suicide not even a year _after_. 

The news sent him straight to the bar, fuming, looking for the numbness of alcohol and itching for a fight. He needed something to make him feel alive, something to stop the aching desire to follow Aminah.

In walked a group of laughing Starfleet officers that Jim didn't care were new ensigns celebrating their first successful mission after the academy. The red shirts and swirl on their shiny new Starfleet pins indicated they were operations: engineering or security. Jim hoped it was the latter and marked them as the next victims to take a beating from his all-too-frequent bar fights. Or at least give one, he didn’t particularly care which by that point.

Their loud guffaws grated on Jim’s nerves and before he could regret what he was doing, the first punch was thrown. Jim gave a savage grin at their shocked and almost fearful faces. Their expressions quickly morphed to anger and the fight started.

Jim would swear it was the best fight he'd had in a long time, until the next time.

**The third time, well it could be a coincidence, if Starfleet was stupid enough to believe it.**

Jim had given up on life a long time ago. He had found his kids, though part of him wondered if he might have been better off not knowing some of their fates, dead before they could get off the hellhole, dead despite surviving. He never found the courage to finish. Thomas Leighton was the last one and might actually have found a better life, married and doing something useful with his life - agricultural research. But he never ended up following through, couldn't bring himself to knock. He was sure that the man would be better off without him coming back into his life.

Jim wasn’t an idiot. He knew he was a mess, constantly getting in trouble with the law. Alcohol and a pretty girl was enough for him now. But every once in a while, he hacked into Starfleet databases _to show those bastards that he was still better_ he would always tell himself. _It had absolutely_ nothing _to do with wanting to feel talented, to feel able, to feel special, to feel_ real. 

Jim savagely went to jab the PADD at the unbidden thought, trying to exit the servers but an idea quickly formed as he saw a different file that he’d never bothered to look at before. Flight schedules.

_And would you look at that?_ A group of cadets and recruits were scheduled to land and spend a night in the Riverside, Iowa Starfleet shipyard. Jim doubted _that many_ ‘fleet idiots could land and avoid a bar. Perhaps it was time to revisit that bar nice enough to forget to check his ID or didn't care enough whom they served when he had been sent back to Iowa so long ago. Two for the price of one. Plus, maybe there'd be a girl lacking enough good sense to refuse him. Three for one, even better. 

**Of course, the rest, as they say, is history.**

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think! I'd love to hear from you (and a thanks to underoosstark and Finnegancat for the comments- I really appreciate them!).
> 
> A few notes for this story in particular-  
> \- In case you didn't understand- The first fight he misunderstood cadets talking about Kobayashi Maru with the Kelvin. (If someone knows the timeline in terms of when Spock wrote the program, I'd love to know haha)
> 
> \- I am not 100% clear on the pins that Starfleet uses on their shirts-the alternate original movies only have the three symbols (operations: engineering security support, sciences: exploratory medical mental health, and command: administration helm) but I'm also finding more when I google...? Anyone know about it? If I'm totally wrong, let me know and I can fix it. 
> 
> \- Aminah and Ananta are my OCs and yes I have names/general stories for all of the kids on Tarsus. In case you're interested:  
> Ananta is the younger kid of the family Jim stayed with (the mom who is also an OC is a close-ish friend of Winona Kirk's) on Tarsus.  
> Aminah was one of the older girls in the group that Jim saved and ended up dying because she couldn't take the mental trauma (I may have made her a twin and her twin died on planet- oops)  
> If her brief summary doesn't tell you, I am trying to write a believeable (ish) story about surviving a mass genocide as a child. Granted each character is based mostly on speculation/extrapolation and some imagination on my part, but from my understanding healing from trauma is hard, different for everyone and not everyone does make it through. Jim is taking the super long way 'round whereas others healed fast(ish) and some (like Aminah) didn't get the time they needed to heal before they were overwhelmed.


End file.
